About Obama

History was made November 6th 2008 when the United States broke the ultimate color barrier–the likes we’ve not seen since Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for her role as Mammie in “Gone With The Wind” and since Jackie Robinson first went to bat in the Majors.

Barack Hussein Obama will become the 44th President on January 20, 2009.

While watching some of the revelers at the Harris County Democratic Party Victory Celebration last Tuesday night, I was amazed by their amazement.   I watched the way some people looked when Obama spoke.  They were mesmerized; glassy eyed.  It was as if they regard him as some mythic Mage, a Jinn…a man of magic.  At the very least, a human panacea that will come in to Washington like a politically charged juggernaut and immediately right all the dirty, nasty Republican wrongs.

I wish the Gentlemen from Chicago all the luck in the world.  He’ll need it.  But after this campaign and everything I’ve learned about him, I can’t help but equate him to a mediocre talent like Madonna who’s success has been the result of brilliant marketing.   She’s surrounded herself with  savvy marketing types who could get and keep her name out there…most of it via tasteless and unorthodox means, but let’s be honest, she still sells CD and magazines.  But the reality is, talent hasn’t kept Madonna on the forefront; her audacity  has.   Obama  should follow suit and surround himself with some very brilliant people. too.   He’ll need them.  Considering all the mess we’ll be enduring, it would probably serve him well if he learned to sing (with  A LOT studio affect) dance and wear Gaultier designed spiked bustiers.

I wrote this post at the beginning of the year;  not long after the Obama/Rev. Jeremiah Wright nonsense.  It was at that time and the way that Obama handled that PR debacle that I lost my respect for the candidate and for the man.

This is being republished by special request.

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A few months ago, I wrote  post about Barack Obama being Irish and playing up the melanin in his skin (Black Irish) in order to pass as this country’s first viable African American presidential candidate.

My piece, “An Utter Obama Nation“, is pure satire.

But some people didn’t see it as such and let me know, as they always do, that my poking fun of Democrats; especially the non-white ones, is strictly verboten.

I was left a comment recently from a reader expressing this displeasure. I republish it for you here and it remains in the same pristine condition in which it was sent.

“Wll here we go again, folk got jokes and this is really no joking matter. The world is still stuck on racial descrimination and we are in a crises. I personally like O’Bama regardless of his color, he is about bringing change to the nation — one in which is in desparate need! And yes, he does have the experience. Unlike Hillary, she is known because of Former President Clinton, and has some advantage in this popularity contest. However, it’s the best person for the job regardless of race, daaaaa! We the people need to wake up and smell the coffee! Our government does what ever it wants to do and we are just dumb lame ducks, taking what ever is handed out and don’t want to make waves. Well, the time is now to make some serious changes and we must begin now! Hell, look at what the last 8 years has brought us….people be smart — get off of the racial jokes and get it together!”

You’re right Anonymous Commenter, this is no laughing matter.

It is pathetic. We should all be crying.

Crying foul, that is.

Obama’s recent speech concerning Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s hate vitriol from the pulpit of a Black church was described by one Broadcasting colleague as “some of the best tap dancing since Savion Glover.”

I didn’t see it as a tap dance at all. At least not in the way, Obama should have danced considering the gravity of the situation. And he should have said more.

What what he did say was, in my opinion, completely deflective. He said that in all the years he’s known Wright, he’s never heard him utter anything anti-White America. And then he went on to say that he was repulsed by what Wright has said, there have been other people…white people in positions of power…who have said far more egregious things.

He even quoted his own white grandmother who admitted to him once that black men scare her.

Interesting tack.

I’ve used it before myself. In fifth grade when I got caught hitting my sister, Karol. As my parents were assessing my punishment, I tried to negate my guilt by pronouncing to them that Karol, who was older and bigger, started the fight by teasing me.

That didn’t matter. They saw me hit her. Nothing else Karol did prior to that mattered, I was the one who exacerbated the things by landing the first blow.

With the exception of the fact that I was nine and Barack Obama is running for president of the United States, I see no real difference here.

In the simplest of terms, two wrongs don’t make a right and that’s what Obama is asking us to believe. He’s asking for dispensation for a Black man’s hate speech simply because he’s a Black man. He’s asking the American populace give leeway to a man who’s played an important ecclesiastical role in Obama’s life; a spiritual adviser who baptized his two daughters. He compared America to Al Qaeda; that we brought 9/11 on ourselves, yet according to Obama, White America needs to understand because White American has no idea what life has been like for this “man of God”. White America can’t understand “the Black experience”.

Truth is, the bulk of Black America today doesn’t understand it either. The bulk of Black America mercifully, has never had to endure that particular aspect of “the Black experience”.

I’m talking of course, about a host of Civil Rights marches, namely in Selma; the protests in Birmingham and other places in the which police dogs gnawed off fingers of some protesters and add to that insult, numerous fire hoses were used. The water pressure was so intense, flesh was ripped open.

In 2008, the majority of Blacks in this country know only the progress that was born from sacrifice in the 60’s. The freedoms and rights and privileges (and yes, I do mean privileges) have a bloody history. Advancement has come with a body count.But the bloodshed, the extreme mortal sacrifices weren’t for naught. The Civil Rights Act was signed and enacted in 1964 and according to Ralph Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, it was “a cracker from Texas” who did it: the document bears the signature of President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Most have never seen a “Whites Only” water fountain. And maybe with the exception of a few courses offered or a few TV shows broadcast during Black History Month, no one would even know they existed. America’s segregated past is a very ugly one. Even so, we can’t and shouldn’t sweep it under the rug. But we also have to understand it’s dichotomy. It’s because of that past that we have the present. But let’s make no mistake: there’s more progress to be made. Much of that, in my humble opinion, centers around the Black America’s opinion of itself.

The philosopher, Santyana once scribed, “Those who forget the past, are condemned to repeat it”. We should never forget what happened, nor should we keep rehashing it for political or social gain. Ruffling the feathers of a few has a way of escalating in to an extremely agitated flock. And let’s be honest, sometimes, keeping people down justifies certain actions. And it’s not always at the hands of our oppressors. Sometimes, we become victims of our own people.

Agendas are diligent masters.

But Obama is also asking that we never forget that racism is alive and well in America. How can we forget when “men of God” like Reverend Jeremiah Wright makes it a part of his lexicon. He’s no better than the maniacal Reverend Fred Phelps…no better than the late Jerry Falwell who said something to the effect that AIDS was sent by God to thin out the gay heard. As a society, we don’t cut them any slack. Nor should we. And Reverend Wright’s skin tone shouldn’t be the reasons why we give him a pass.

Nope…sorry. Hate is hate. Skin color be damned. No one gets a pass for hate.

My commenter goes on to talk about the past eight years and the hell that the Bush Administration has wrought on the world. OK. I’ll give you that…to an extent. Bush has made some mistakes. He’s been poorly advised on a number of things. But he’s also had one of the most difficult administrations in the history of this country.

September 11th, Afghanistan, Iraq, the tsunami.  Hurricanes Katrina,  Rita, Wilma and more recently, Ike.  The list doesn’t stop there, either.

I voted for Bush…twice. I felt in my heart that he was the best man for the job. And considering everything that happened, I still think he did a better job than Al Gore or John Kerry could have.

But  in the past eight years, I’ve also heard some absolutely horrible things about George Bush. I’ve heard him called a cretin, “a retard”, an idiot. He’s dumb and illiterate and only out for to protect his rich old buddies and avenge his father’s screw up in Iraq in the early 90’s. Dems and Lefties have hit him hard with this vile nastiness. Easy pickins, too. George Bush is a natural target; an easy mark. On top of being the president, he’s also a white male. And that regrettably, makes him Public Enemy #1.

How racist is that?

Now, if I am to read the verbal prowess of my commenter correctly, he/she insists that when it comes to electing a president and I quote…”it’s the best person for the job regardless of race, daaaaa!” then Obama’s skin color shouldn’t be a factor.

OK sure,  I’m”down with that” my young friend, but if Obama does win, I don’t want to hear the bullshit that will no doubt ensue. When “President Obama” makes mistakes (and I assure you, he will) and there’s a firestorm of criticism that follows (and I assure you, there will be) , I don’t want to hear that he’s being targeted because he’s a black man.

If he can be elected, he can also be blamed.

And he can and will be held accountable. His “blackness” does not absolve him from making mistakes–big or small.

His “blackness” will not render him untouchable, either. If he wins in November and he and The Family Obama move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the jokes won’t stop coming. Pundits are going to rip into him and his policy and his cabinet and his big floppy ears and his last name. He might end up being the first racially mixed President to ever occupy the Oval Office, but he damn sure won’t be the first to be Teflon coated.

Because of the Reverend Wrights in the world, along with the Danny Glovers and the Janine Garofalos and Louis Farrakhans who’ve helped to add to the racial piquancy of this campaign, the theory of convergence will be more prevalent should Barack Obama win.

Good always comes with bad. It’s an unavoidable fact of life. You can’t have one without the other.

Nor can you try to erase the racist things Reverend Wright said while asking a nation to remember that racism is very much alive and well when they approach the ballot box this November. You can’t have it both ways either, Barack.

But you know this. You’ve lived this.

In your speech, you admitted it was something you had to learn by growing up half black.

And half white.

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